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Friday, November 16, 2018

Grüezi, people. It’s been awhile. So for that, here's a big American "sorry."

The Frau has been deep into her
American life lately, and is still trying to make sense of it all, since not a
lot of things make sense in America right now. The exciting news is that the
manuscript for American Life: 30 Things I
Wish I’d Known, which is the sequel to Swiss Life, is complete and is on its way to becoming a book. It details a lot of
things The Frau wishes she had known about American life after Switzerland. In
particular, she tries to answer these questions in the book:

Why does everyone in America act so outwardly happy even though we
account for two-thirds of the global market for antidepressants?

Why does an announcer tell The Frau to visit Aisle 7 for laxatives every
time she goes to the drug store to buy a greeting card?

Why are there no children at the playground, even in a city of 8.2
million?

Why, when The Frau looks for work-life balance, does she find
frustration instead?

Why does American healthcare put profits first and people last—and why do so many
Americans still vote for people who want to benefit corporations over people?

Why is The Frau treated better as a corporation than she was as a sole
proprietor?

And most importantly:

Why, in today’s America, do 99 percent of us feel foreign and isolated
in one way or another?

Registration just opened and The Frau would love to see some of her fellow Yodelers in April.

If you can’t commit to the full weekend, it’s possible to just attend Pitch Perfect in Zurich, which will be held on Sunday, April 15th. Pitch Perfect in Zurich will offer live feedback on anything a writer might pitch to an editor: from query letters, freelance magazine and newspaper pitches, to personal essay pitches. To reflect reality, the participants will pitch the instructors ahead of time via email, and besides providing feedback on each submission, the panelists will discuss which submissions caught their eye in their packed inbox and why.

In any case, mid-April is a great time to visit Zurich thanks to the spring festival, Sechseläuten, where a snowman called the Böögg will be set on fire on April 16th to predict the summer weather. So enjoy a writing weekend, and then end it with a bang, the Böögg version.

But if
you’re the type that thinks it’s not okay to shop on Sunday at all ever, then never
fear—there are more things to do this season than shop. How about sledding to
the city instead?

After all, how
many places do you know where you can take a toboggan to the top of a mountain
and slide into the country’s largest city? Welcome to both the top and bottom
of Zurich. It’s an amazing ride between the two.

So here’s your
winter tip:

Uetliberg,
nicknamed the Top of Zurich, is the starting point for the ultimate in city
sledding. The sled run to Triemli is 3.1 kilometers in length and drops 330
meters in altitude. When snow and ice bring sledding enthusiasts to the
mountain, there’s a guaranteed laryngitis epidemic.

Since this is
Switzerland, the sled path is not only groomed meticulously (no misbehaving
snowflakes allowed), but it is also monitored daily. Your sledding pleasure is
so important, there is even a sledding hotline to give you trail updates.

Is it icy? Is it
slushy? Is it perfect? The Swiss leave nothing to chance, not even a trip to
the sled hill (well, mountain). Call the toboggan hotline or download a map of
the route from the utokulm.ch website. When sledding in Switzerland, you do not
just go where the snow and spirit take you. You must sled with purpose.

You can also sled
with something else: a flashlight. In fact, zooming down an icy mountain at
night with any combination of battery-powered lighting is encouraged. Be your
own little shooting star by wearing a headlamp or, better yet, mount your smart
phone on your sled and let it be your guiding light as you slide down to the
city.

Obviously dark
thrills are not for all. There are trees, fences, posts, pylons, and people,
and if that combination is a bit worrying for you on an icy incline, don’t fret.
If sledding isn’t your thing, you can still enjoy a scenic 18-minute ride down
the mountain on the red S10 train that runs between Triemli and Uetliberg every 30 minutes.

There’s more to do
up at Uetliberg than sled. You
can sit on a bench and enjoy views of Zurich, the lake, and the Alps. You can
hike on countless trails, or you can have hot chocolate at the Uto Kulm Hotel
and enjoy the great outdoors from the warmth (and safety) of a restaurant.

For more information on sledding:

Schlittelweg: Uetliberg to Triemli, 3.1 km

Sled hotline: +41
(0) 44 412 14 71

Starting point:
From Zurich, take the S10 to Uetliberg,
look for the Schlittelweg sign

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Time (a Swiss preoccupation, how appropriate) has taught the The Frau that small slices of Switzerland are readily available for her consumption not far from her American home. Take this refrigerator at Esther's European Imports in New Glarus, Wisconsin. It's not often a selection of drinks in an American store excites The Frau, but that is because most American shelves are not stocked with Rivella, Elmer Citro, Pepita, and Sinalco. Merci vielmal for this cornucopia of Swissness, Esther from Thun. She has run this shop for many years.Next, take this shelf. It looks like something found in Switzerland, but nope, this is a shelf at Alp and Dell in Monroe, Wisconsin. It's the largest Emmi cheese dairy outside of Switzerland (they even have a supply of Swiss brown cows and proper Emmi equipment here). Esther's husband, Tony, runs this place and will take your order in Swiss German if you prefer. And guess what, American friends, his shop delivers. So forget that pizza delivery, it's time for a little Raclette this winter.

Then...The Frau was recently wandering the streets of San Francisco, when she found Switzerland at Pier 17. It's an expanding hub of Swiss diplomatic presence in America and it comes with a proper Swiss clock so you're not late to discover it. Expect nothing less.

Finally, The Frau can't help it–she always gets a little nostalgic when she sees this plane, whatever American airport it happens to be waiting in. But she feels very lucky to have gotten to spend almost a month in Switzerland this year and even more time experiencing the American side of Switzerland. And there's a lot of Switzerland still waiting to be discovered in the United States.

Thursday, October 05, 2017

Is it too early to be thinking about December holidays? Swiss grocery stores say “no.” In fact, they were thinking about Christmas way back in August. Here’s a display from the Baden Migros grocery back in September.

Until December, though, there are lots of great things to do in Switzerland. Here are a few highlights:

Eat Chocolate and Cinnamon-Roasted Pumpkin Seeds at Jucker Farm

Every fall in Switzerland there’s a pumpkin paradise just waiting to be discovered. It takes place at Jucker Farm, a working farm where towering sculptures made from pumpkins can be enjoyed along with some chocolate and cinnamon-roasted pumpkin seeds and fresh apple cider.

There are two Jucker Farm locations in Northern Switzerland: Seegräben and Jona. Both are wonderful. At lunchtime, each farm restaurant offers a hot buffet with meats and pasta, a salad buffet, soups, sandwiches, flammkuchen, and desserts like apple strudel. The food is reasonably priced and very good—which makes finding a table difficult.

On the scale of parades featuring flames in Switzerland, the Richterswil Räbechilbi (Turnip Lantern Parade) is quite tame. But what it lacks in risk it more than makes up for in its ability to celebrate normally ignored root vegetables.

Think 29,000 kilograms of turnips (all grown locally), 50,000 candles, 1,100 participants, and 20,000 visitors (in a town of 13,000) and you’ll get the idea. When the Swiss combine the words “turnip” and “festival” they mean business. In fact, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Richterswil Räbechilbi is now the largest turnip parade in the world.

This year's parade is Saturday, November 11 at 6:30 p.m. in Richterswil.

Hike the Morteratsch Glacier Trail

If The Frau had to choose her favorite hike in Switzerland, it would probably be the Morteratsch Glacier hike—especially if it’s mid-October. There are several reasons for this.

One is the sheer beauty of orange and yellow larch trees framing the icy snow and the (hopefully) blue sky. The Engadine area is famous for its autumn colors, and not without reason.

Two is the length (approx. 5-6 kilometers, 1 hour 40 minutes total) and ease of the walk (fairly flat, on a mostly wide and graveled path), which allows one to admire the scenery without being distracted by blisters or aching muscles.

Three is easy access. The hike begins and ends at the Morteratsch train station, whose neighbor is the Hotel Restaurant Morteratsch—a relaxing place for lunch.

P.S. 96.9 more ideas for un-touristy fun are included in The Frau's second book, 99.9 Ways to Travel Switzerland Like a Local, which was published in May. It makes a great Christmas gift, at least for those of you already buying Lebkuchen at the Migros.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Uh, will
you listen to The Frau? She is SO American now, starting every sentence with
“Sorry.”

Sorry. The
Frau has been busy.

Oh, busy
too? How American of her.

The Frau threw a slightly lighter stone...

Ahh. The
Frau hears herself being so American and she can’t stop it anymore. Oh well.
Despite being oh-so-American now after almost, yes, three years back in the
U.S., The Frau is still up to her Swiss ways too. Earlier earlier this month
she was running around Switzerland doing research for a couple of projects,
including a piece about a very special festival in Interlaken, which ran in the Financial Times a week ago.

The big
news (if you don’t have time to read the FT piece) is that The Frau threw a big
boulder at a Swiss festival called Unspunnen. This festival, held only every 12
years in Interlaken, was amazing because it was the first festival that really
allowed anyone—yes, even tourists like The Frau—to not only witness Swissness,
but to participate in Swissness.

Because
here’s the thing—watch something at a festival and you might take a picture.
Participate in something at a festival and you’ll tell a story about it
instead.

Thus, the
boulder throwing. Throwing a gigantic stone is one of three traditional Swiss
sports (along with Hornussen and wrestling) so at least now The Frau has a
claim to Swiss sporting fame. While she didn’t volunteer to throw the 184-pound
boulder (she could have though, you know, Swiss personal responsibility and
all) she did throw a 30-pound stone—wearing sandals, no less.

During her
trip to Switzerland she also biked the Albula Pass (you must do this next year,
Yodelers, if you haven’t—the SlowUp makes it easy by closing the road), hung
out in St. Gallen, Appenzell, and Schaffhausen—you know for research purposes,
and saw a few friends too.

It’s still
hard for her to come home to America after Switzerland, at least the America
that’s going on these days. But someone has to try to make it a better place,
and The Frau continues to try, this year by taking a leadership role with her
local citizen’s council.

And in the
meantime, there’s book number three to finish, all about American life after
Switzerland—in other words—American Life:
30 Things I Wish I’d Known. And boy are there a lot of things The Frau
wishes she had known about her own country. Way more than 30, but now the fun
part begins of choosing exactly which 30 to highlight. Stay tuned.

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About the Author

I’m an American writer who moved to Switzerland in 2006 and am now back in the US to determine if I can live anywhere else after being in a country filled with cheese, chocolate, and people who can pronounce my name. The author of Swiss Life: 30 Things I Wish I'd Known www.swisslifebook.com, and 99.9 Ways to Travel Switzerland Like a Local www.swisstravelbook.com, I have written about Switzerland for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN Travel, and many other publications.
Visit: www.chantalpanozzo.com